With a dominant 3-0 win against TNL, MVP Black becomes the first Korean team to qualify for Dreamhack All Stars - Summer. There, they will defend their title as World Champion and best Heroes team in the world. The question is, which Korean team will join them in Sweden?
While the match was exceedingly one-sided in favour of MVP Black, the draft of Game 1 was really interesting in terms of the Sonya/Illidan dynamic: neither was banned in the opening ban phase, so instead of taking one or the other MVP Black first picked Tassadar, attempting to pair him with one of those two heroes for an extremely strong composition. TNL wound up taking both Sonya and Illidan - exciting on paper but less so in practice, especially since Sniper was forced to play a hero he does not normally play. MVP Black would win the set easily despite an ill-advised boss contest.
With MVP Black now qualified for Dreamhack All Stars - Summer, let’s look at each playoff team in Super League Season 2 and assess the strength of the team and their chances of qualifying for Sweden:
MVP Black (already qualified)
Whoever the other qualifying Korean team is, they will first face MVP Black in the Grand Finals of Heroes of the Storm Super League 2016 - Season 2 to determine who the Korean champion and #1 KR seed at Dreamhack All Stars - Summer will be.
How daunting is this challenge? Let’s put it this way - MVP Black has won 34 straight matches. In the beginning, we marvelled at their dominance. Now, when they lose 3 maps out of 16, 2 of them against the 2nd best team in the world, it comes as a shock - we’ve become so used to them winning in dominant fashion that anything less causes us to reassess them, to drop them a peg in our mental assessment of their relative standing.
This tweet is about Sake, but it could just as easily be about MVP Black as a whole:
Team No Limit
Team No Limit was unable to take advantage of their first opportunity to qualify for Dreamhack All Stars - Summer, losing 0-3 to MVP Black in the Winners’ Finals. They will have another chance to qualify for the Summer Global in the Losers’ Finals, against the winner of the match between Tempest and Mighty.
One of, if not the oldest team in Heroes of the Storm, TNL has been playing Heroes of the Storm competitively at a high level for a long time. Unfortunately, with the exception of their upset win in 2015 HOT6 Super League over MVP Black, TNL has been unable to win major events against the absolute best teams, as their losses in Blizzcon, GHL 2015 Finals, Heroes of the Storm Super League 2016 - Season 1, and the Spring Global Championships in Seoul attest to. This makes them a gatekeeper of sorts - a reliable measuring stick that can be used to assess the strength of the other team, a fate they are resigned to until they can break through and win that major event that for the most part remains elusive.
Tempest
Tempest is an All-Star team, comprised of an ex-MVP Black player and his brother, and three players from the 2015 Korean Heroes of the Storm team MRR, which was often MVP Black’s main challenger in Korea during 2015 due to TNL/Team DK and Asia Stardust/Team Snake being in China. Their opening match was against TNL, and TNL handled them decisively.
Since then, they have gone through a couple of role swaps and gotten valuable match experience as a team, and as a result their level of play is considerably stronger than before. Never was this more evident than in Game 1 of the Semi-Finals against MVP Black, where they decisively routed them behind the power of Sonya. While TNL is undoubtedly the favourite to be the 2nd Korean representative in Sweden, don’t count this team out - they definitely have the talent to upset TNL and show up in a big way on the global stage.
Mighty
With a forgettable finish in the 1st season of Heroes of the Storm Superleague 2016, quite a few Heroes of the Storm watchers weren’t even convinced that Mighty was the 2nd best team in the group A, believing that RAVE HOTS would be the 2nd place finisher in the group.
However, Mighty went through several roster changes since then, most notably adding ex-Rave warrior player Joker. These changes have paid off - not only did they make it to the playoffs, but they actually won a map against TNL in the Semi-Finals behind the almighty Sonya, even though they ultimately lost the match. It is likely that their journey will end against Tempest, but nothing is impossible - perhaps a historic Cinderella run is in the cards.
Heroes of the Storm Super League - Season 2 continues this Sunday at 3 am PDT with the matchup between Tempest and Mighty. The victor faces TNL the next day at the same time for the right to represent Korea in Sweden at Dreamhack All Stars - Summer. Follow Superleague on the US stream or the Korean stream to find out who will be the other Korean representative in Sweden - and if they are any opposition to the seemingly unstoppable MVP Black in the Grand Finals on June 5.
Follow us on Twitter @GosuGamersHotS for more competitive Heroes of the Storm news and coverage.
